[2] Prior to entering Parliament, Tennet was involved in the Labour Party at an organisational level.

[4] She gave birth to her son while an MP and travelled to Parliament with her 24-day-old child to attend a special caucus meeting in 1988 to support Prime Minister David Lange in a leadership challenge by sacked finance minister Roger Douglas.

[6] In the 1995 local elections she was chosen as the Labour Party's candidate for the Wellington mayoralty to replace the retiring Fran Wilde.

[8] Wilde did not support Tennet's candidacy thinking she was not right for the role and she was only standing for mayor because the Island Bay seat was being abolished at the next general election.

[10] In 2009, Tennet was appointed chief executive of industry development organisation Textiles New Zealand.